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Are You Carb Sensitive?


Posted by Angie Schumacher Healthy Living ProfessionalHealth Maven

carbs
I have been at a plateau for about a year now. I have dropped some body fat during the course of the year, but for the most part have stayed the same. Honestly, I have been so busy getting my businesses up and running, I haven’t really had that much time to look into the reasons why…until now.

I have been experimenting with different ratios of carbs, protein and fats to see what works for my body. I have come to the conclusion that I am Carb Sensitive. What exactly do I mean by this? Well, carbs do not “do my body well” and cause my body to stop making progress.

What is Carb Sensitivity?

This means that when you become carbohydrate sensitive, your body can no longer burn fat effectively, and those moderate to low-glycemic and complex carbohydrates get stored as fat.

Here are some signs that might indicate you are carb sensitive:

–You crave carbohydrates
–You are overweight or obese and are struggling to lose weight
–You’re a woman and over forty
–You suffer from chronic or bouts of depression and compulsive overeating –You have been over-stressed for some time
–You are hormonally challenged and under a doctor’s care
–You react negatively to eating sugar, i.e., you become tired, groggy, and your mental response becomes sluggish
–You reach for carbohydrates over protein most or all of the time
–Your diet doesn’t consist mostly of whole foods, especially low to moderate glycemic foods

Now I’m not saying that you cannot eat carbs, because that will not help your body achieve anything. But you might have to adjust your ratios a little different and pay attention to how your body responds and how you feel. I try to keep my carbs below 120 grams per day. I have had to re-adjust them a couple times to find the right number. Too low and I feel tired, too high and I feel too tired and make no progress in my goals. I also try to keep my higher carb meals or starchy carbs around my workouts and earlier in the day. I also try to get most of my carbs from fibrous foods. Keep in mind that when you lower your carbs, you need to increase your fats, just make sure your fats are coming from healthy sources, such as nuts, olive oils and salad dressings.

Do you think you might be carb sensitive?

 
Answers (6)
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Carb sensitivity is one of the most overlooked health and nutrition ailments we face today. THANK YOU for bringing attention to this subject today. :)
I think a large part of the population is carb sensitive and don't realize it. Thanks for posting the warning signs, I'm sure it'll be helpful to a lot of people who are having problems and don't know why.

your welcome!!

Yes, many of my clients have no CLUE actually how many carbs they are taking in until we sit down and take a look at their meals. Once we take, even half of the carbs out, they start making progress like crazy!

I tend to do 3 days low and then one high carb day, just to shake my body up a bit and it really helps with cravings later on also!

Because of the high content of fat/sugar/salt in many processed carbs, we need to be careful not to create a physical dependence on them. That happens because dopamine (the feel good neurotransmitter) gets activated by eating these foods, which makes us crave them again and again. Some people are more sensitive to carbs and become addicted more readily than others, most likely due to their biochemistry. The trick is to pick and choose among healthy carbs and to regulate carb intake without feeling deprived.

Best, 

Karen R. Koenig, LCSW, M.Ed. 

 

Carb sensitivity and Sugar addiction is something I've been looking into as well.  I've been reading one of Dr. Kathleen DesMaisons books, and love how she says sugar addiction is a symptom of sugar sensitivity.  She talks a lot about the relationship between carbs/sugar and protein and how it is from her perspective that you can actually  reorient your biochemistry through diet to overcome such addictions.  We recently did an interview with her- you can access it here:  http://community.eatingforevolution.com/articles/310?ac=8ye3otnz

Cheers,

Amber Schey
When someone is conscious with his or her diet, it also means that he or she is carb sensitive. I would suggest to those people having diet to just eat brunch coz' it is really effective. I am doing this for almost a year and it is part of my lifestyle already. As one way of diet, brunch could be also consider as one way of saving money because instead of eating two meals, breakfast and lunch, you can just combine these two into brunch. Through this, I already save money and at the same time I follow my carb diet.
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